HOUSTON – A new free COVID-19 testing site in the East End is opening up Monday at Houston Community College's Felix Fraga Campus.
Houston has partnered with United Memorial Medical Center to open the site that Mayor Turner said will be used to specifically help the Hispanic communities in Houston. The site is also supposed to alleviate the testing demand at the HCC Southeast College.
Several people lined up early at the site on Navigation near North Milby Street. The site is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Local leaders held a news conference that said the pandemic is disproportionately affecting minorities, especially the Hispanic community.
Since early March, more than 4,800 Hispanic people tested positive for COVID-19 in Houston, according to the Houston Health Department. That is nearly 20% of more than 25,000 confirmed cases in Houston.
However, in Harris County, the racial disparity is inflamed.
Hispanic people make up more than 40% of those who tested positive, according to the Harris County Public Health Department. Latinx people accounted for 6,100 of the nearly 14,000 confirmed cases, health officials said.
At the site, you don’t need an appointment and you don’t need to have symptoms.